


Faulty Can Openers

by pyrrhical (anoyo)



Category: Merlin - Fandom
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-10
Updated: 2010-01-10
Packaged: 2018-05-18 14:21:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5931564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anoyo/pseuds/pyrrhical
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arthur was sure that he'd heard somewhere that only idiots could get colds in the summer. Something about the weather and germs and spreading, but he hadn't paid much attention. Right now, he rather wished he had, if only so he could hold it over Merlin's head after he managed to make Gwen's ancient, dented can opener pry open the can of soup he'd found lurking in the back of her and Merlin's cupboards.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Faulty Can Openers

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted 1/10/10 [here](http://pyrrhical.livejournal.com/163373.html).

Arthur was sure that he'd heard somewhere that only idiots could get colds in the summer. Something about the weather and germs and spreading, but he hadn't paid much attention. Right now, he rather wished he had, if only so he could hold it over Merlin's head after he managed to make Gwen's ancient, dented can opener pry open the can of soup he'd found lurking in the back of her and Merlin's cupboards. 

Gwen had phoned him earlier that morning, sounding rushed and frazzled, and had practically screeched into the phone that Merlin was sick but she had an exam, and they all knew what Merlin was like when he was sick, and he was Arthur's boyfriend, so, really, Arthur ought to come over and take care of him, oughtn't he, and Gwen would leave the key under the mat, but Merlin shouldn't be left alone for too long. For all Arthur knew, Gwen had left immediately upon hanging up. He'd still been in bed, having just finished a late exam the night before after studying for more hours straight than he wanted to admit, and it had taken him a few bleary minutes staring at his phone before he processed that this meant, yes, he needed to get up, get dressed, and get across university town to Gwen and Merlin's flat before it turned out that Merlin was seizing or something on the floor.

It turned out that Merlin was not seizing, merely coughing up a lung and vomiting what had long ago wrung out into stomach acid, miserably informing Arthur, "I think I might be sick." He had then vomited again and continued, "And your shirt is inside out."

Arthur might have found it cute, all things considered, if Merlin didn't look like a zombie when ill. The resemblance was really quite striking. He had helped Merlin back into bed, forced some water and a nausea pill down his throat, called a medical helpline, and trudged into the kitchen in order to try and find something easy to process, like soup.

Which led him to the noncompliant soup can and failure of a can opener. "I'm buying them a bloody new can opener for our end of finals bash, this is ridiculous," he muttered, bashing what might have been the sharp end, once, into the top of the can a couple times to try and get a point in. A glance around the kitchen found Arthur a paring knife and a particularly bad idea, but Arthur did manage to get a corner of the can open with the paring knife without removing any of his fingers, so he called it a success and watched the soup sluggishly chug out of the can.

He warmed the soup up to an immediately edible, but not hot, temperature and brought it back down the hall to Merlin's room, plopping it on a bedside table before grabbing a few of the floor pillows -- "They're for studying on the floor, so I don't study in my bed and fall asleep," Merlin always said, right after Arthur woke him up from having fallen asleep on his floor pillows while studying -- to prop Merlin up against while he ate.

"Thanks," Merlin said, rasping slightly before hacking into his elbow.

Arthur rolled his eyes. "What do you even have? Who gets a cough and the pukes? Is that even a disease? It sounds like something you get after drinking too much after too much karaoke."

Merlin glared at him over his soup, but his glare was as feeble as the rest of him and Arthur smirked, moving so he was sitting on the bed up against Merlin's over-warm side, wrapping an arm around his shoulders for support. Merlin took another slurp of his soup before he replied, "Why would I know? I just woke up like this. Probably just some virus from stress or something."

"At least your finals are done," Arthur said, fixing the blankets in Merlin's lap to tuck around him more securely. 

After Merlin had finished the soup an incredibly long period of time later, Arthur set it on the side table and handed Merlin the rest of the water he'd brought him before making the soup. Merlin sipped at it slowly, handing it back to Arthur when he'd decided he was done. Arthur pulled the floor pillows out from behind Merlin and helped them both lay down, yawning almost precisely when Merlin did.

"Puke bucket's next to your head," Arthur said, patting Merlin's head.

Merlin rolled his eyes. "How romantic," he muttered, squirming into his blankets and Arthur's side, rearranging them both as he saw fit.

When Merlin was done, Arthur hooking his arm around Merlin's torso and chuckled. "Oh, look, you're feeling better already. Maybe I should go into nursing."

"I'm going to sleep now," Merlin said, elbowing Arthur in the ribs.

"Mmhm," Arthur replied, kissing the side of Merlin's head. "Don't puke on me."


End file.
